"Sect Leader, did my brother truly gain Sword Qi?" Su Min asked from the side. She had seen the event unfold and had thus listened to what Wen Cheng had said.
"I… don't know. He can definitely use it, but it doesn't seem to be at a level where it is consistent," Wen Cheng said. "Still, just the fact that he reached there means that he will be able to freely use Sword Qi sooner or later."
Su Min smiled when she heard that. She really liked her senior brother being strong and was looking forward to when he became the prime disciple.
Wen Cheng suddenly smiled and then started laughing like an idiot.
"Master? What's wrong?"
"Are you okay, sect leader?"
Various voices of concern started ringing from either side.
"Hahaha, you guys. Don't you realize what just happened? Little Mei will be fighting Yuhan in the next battle," he said.
The people didn't understand what was so funny about that.
"Don't you see?" he asked, "We have a guaranteed spot in the final round."
" Oh… OH!," they finally realized what that meant.
"We... We are going to be 2nd in the competition," they rejoiced.
Alex looked at them all happy and smiled. Suddenly, the feeling vanished once more. 'What is that?' he thought.
He suddenly turned to the stage and saw Wan Li on the stage along with his opponent. Alex couldn't help but sigh.
Wan Li's opponent was a person in the 6th Mind Tempering realm and used Metal Qi. Both Earth and Fire were either Weakened or Ruined by Metal Qi.
As such, Alex didn't even want to watch the match. However, he watched it for the single reason that it was Wan Li. Wan Li put up an excellent fight, but there was just no way he could win.
Even with the lava attacks, the metal Qi took care of them like it was nothing. In the end, it didn't even take 2 minutes for Wan Li to lose.
However, nobody was disappointed in him for losing here. In fact, everyone was genuinely surprised and amazed at the fact that an alchemist was able to make it this far without relying on pills as a form of combat.
The next match was even worse. Since it was between Chu Xiang and the disciple from the Thousand Hand sect, it was obvious who would win.
Chu Xiang used a single palm attack and destroyed a puppet entirely. The opponent gave up before his other puppets were destroyed as well.
So, the Top 8 competitions came to a close as well.
The stage was prepared as the audience waited listened to Fu Zhen speak about the competition. Once everything was prepared, Luo Mei and Du Yuhan walked up to the stage.
They both went to either side of the stage.
Anticipation rose in the air as everyone wanted to see their fight. One was a fighter that overwhelmed the other with water arts, and another was a fighter that could release Sword Qi. Adding onto the fact that people knew they were from the same sect, they naturally looked forward to it.
The people who looked forward to it most were still the tiger sect disciples. The Core disciples rarely ever fought in the fighter hall as they had a tacit understanding of each other's strength.
So when they got to see their top 2 fight, they were naturally excited… except for Wen Cheng. His face was solemn as he looked at the stage with a serious face.
"Are you worried about sister losing, Master?" Alex asked. Wen Cheng would likely lose his status as the sect leader if that were to happen.
Wen Cheng shook his head in denial.
"Then... are you worried about brother Yuhan losing?" Alex thought that wasn't possible but still asked.
"Yes," Wen Cheng said as he nodded. That surprised Alex. Wen Cheng would have to step down if Du Yuhan won, and yet he was worried about the opposition losing.
"Why?" Alex asked.
"Well, it's not so much about Yuhan losing, but rather… how he loses," Wen Cheng said.
'Is he worried that sister will defeat him so badly that he will lose all motivation to advance? That doesn't seem like his character,' Alex thought.
"BEGIN," the referee shouted.
Luo Mei immediately brought out her sword and prepared an attack when she saw that Du Yuhan had prepared no sword. She could tell something was wrong. She started to feel a little annoyed when she realized what was going to happen.
Du Yuhan didn't take out his swords. Instead, he opened his mouth and said," I concede."
Luo Mei was stunned for a moment. It wasn't until Du Yuhan turned around to leave that she realized what had happened. She immediately started shouting, "What are you doing? Why are you refusing to fight me?"
Du Yuhan ignored her and started walking away. The referee looked at Luo Mei and said," You Win." She didn't want that.
"Stop walking away you coward, and come fight me," she screamed. Her annoyance turned to full-on anger and she started gritting her teeth.
"Come back right now and fight me, you coward. Stop walking away," she continued screaming. However, Du Yuhan made no such attempt to stop at any point.
In fact, he didn't even bother going to the waiting area and directly walked towards the seating area for the Tiger sect.
Luo Mei kept on screaming, and that was the noise anyone heard for a while. The tiger sect's disciples and elders were both surprised and disappointed by the outcome of their match.
'Why would he do that? Did he know he was not her match?' Alex wondered.
"Why did senior brother give up?" Su Min said with a hint of sadness to her voice.
Everyone asked some variation of the same question. The only one who didn't look surprised was Wen Cheng.
"Sigh, I knew this would happen." He started shaking his head.
Du Yuhan returned to his seat and looked down on the empty stage, ignoring all the questions he was asked. The man who said he would become the greatest… gave up.
